Seven years ago I resolved to do my best part to fight gun violence. I was just finishing my second published book with the American Bar Association when 20 first graders and 6 of their teachers were massacred at Sandy Hook. I added a chapter to Civil Rights Litigation: Representing Plaintiffs Today dedicated to them.
But that was not enough for me, and in the years since I have spent many hours pondering how to approach this issue. In thinking about why we as a country are so deadlocked on it, I thought about some of the problems with the term "gun control." Not only is this term very divisive in itself, but I think it misses the main problem. It is more a problem of guns controlling us, not the other way around. If we stop guns from controlling us, we will then stop them from controlling our country. Hence the title: Guns Don't Control US/A.
This is an evolving issue. And 2020 has already changed the course of history, as it ushered in a devastating worldwide pandemic and Black Lives Matter with unprecedented force, letting the world know that, among other things, white police officers will finally be held accountable for their unchecked and lawless killings of black people.
I wrote this book from a place of love. I do not want to put more division in the world. These mass shootings have stolen love from us, and contributed to the rampant attitudes of callousness, indifference, and selfishness today. But we are not so different after all. Love can bind all of us.
We are not alone
Find out when your cover's blown
There'll be somebody there to break your fall
We are not alone
'Cause when you cut down to the bone
We're really not so different after all
After all
We're not alone
Karla Devito, "We Are Not Alone" (The Breakfast Club, 1985)
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